Field
The present invention relates generally to electronic healthcare records and more particularly to access and exchange of electronic healthcare records using mobile computing devices.
Background
In today's healthcare environment individuals typically receive healthcare from multiple healthcare providers and often at multiple locations. Healthcare providers commonly lack accurate and up to date information regarding the care previously received by a patient from other providers. In order to deliver optimum, coordinated healthcare and most cost-effective healthcare to their patients, healthcare providers need to have ready access to an up to date medical history of their patients wherever they have received care, and the ability to exchange their most recent clinical findings and treatment plans to other healthcare providers who will be caring for their patients next.
To deliver such optimum care coordinated healthcare, new healthcare delivery and financing models have been defined, which emphasize coordination of care with the use of patient-centered medical homes (PCMHs) or accountable care organizations (ACOs). Implementation of such systems, however, can require significant changes in clinical practice and can result increased complexity in business, financing and contractual arrangements associated with the delivery and receipt of medical services. Healthcare information technology (HIT) systems are also now been developed and used to improve care coordination. HIT systems may include regional, federal and state health information exchanges (HIEs), provider-to-provider connectivity solutions using the nationwide health information network (NwHIN) and Direct protocol, or proprietary systems. However, such HIT solutions can be complex and costly to install and operate, and their use by providers (e.g. physicians) can be time-consuming and cumbersome, and often leave connectivity gaps between systems and providers.